expenses: related links
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/14/alan-duncan-expenses-cameron-tories:
There it is, then. The Tories, too, will live down to our expectations
'That all David Cameron can do is 'rebuke' Alan Duncan and his fellow clods shows the scale of Tory dreams in an age of tweeting MPs'
..
'After all, this is the week that saw David Cameron opt to keep poor ration-booked, shit-treated Alan Duncan in his post, rather than declare that perhaps he wasn't the man to front the Tories' now spectacularly compromised expenses clean-up... Greater love hath no man than he lay down his not-very-convincing reformer's pose for Little Alan Duncan's shadow cabinet life?
Big dreams, Dave. Big dreams.'
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6945978.ece:
Lord Taylor of Warwick lied in house dodge
'A TORY peer has been caught using someone else's home address to claim tens of thousands of pounds in expenses.
Lord Taylor of Warwick, a 57-year-old former barrister, told the House of Lords that his main home was a terrace house in Oxford which he neither owned nor lived in.
The property's owner, Tristram Wyatt, a university academic, said he was unaware that his address had been used as the peer's main home.
Wyatt's companion is the peer's step-nephew, Robert Taylor, who admitted to The Sunday Times that his uncle has never lived at the house. "He doesn't live here, he hasn't lived here," he said.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1237194/Moat-MP-Douglas-Hogg-wont-repay-thousands--Norman-law-bung.html:
Moat MP Douglas Hogg won't repay thousands - because of the Norman law of 'bung'
'The MP who used his Commons expenses to clear his moat is refusing to pay back thousands of pounds, claiming he is protected by an ancient law brought to Britain by William the Conqueror.
Former Tory Cabinet Minister Douglas Hogg says he and other MPs accused of abusing their allowances are entitled to keep their expenses based on the Norman law of 'estoppel' - derived from the French word for 'bung'.'
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/02/hypocritical-cameron-voted-against-proposals-to-reform-parliamentary-privilege/:
Hypocritical Cameron voted against proposals to reform parliamentary privilege
'With his poll lead slipping, his team's competence questioned and his policies under attack, David Cameron today stands accused of "breathtaking" hypocrisy over his comments on the expenses scandal. In a speech on rebuilding trust in politics the Conservative party lead sought to portray himself as "the change Britain desperately needs", criticising Gordon Brown for being a "roadblock to political reform".
His record since the scandal broke, however, belies such rhetoric, Left Foot Forward can reveal.
When the Parliamentary Standards Bill was introduced in the Commons on June 23rd, it contained a clause stating parliamentary privilege did not prevent evidence being admissible in proceedings against an MP for an offence in the Bill - a clause deleted after opposition from the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.'